Obama Just Found Out About the VA Scandal, and He's Really, Really Mad

RUSH: Did you see how mad Obama was at that... I guess it was a press conference. He had a meeting with Shinseki, and Shinseki told him what was going on at the VA, and Obama was livid. He was so mad. Did you see that? I would not have wanted to be Shinseki. 'Cause Obama didn't know anything about this until today, and he still doesn't believe it. There still has to be an investigation to find out what really went on at the VA, and then if it did go on, they're gonna trace it back to George W. Bush. It's pretty much what Obama said. But he was mad, he was mad. I mean, he was really, really mad. It's like he just became president yesterday and was just told about this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let's go to the audio sound bites. This is this morning in Washington at the White House. Now, prior to this, Obama had a meeting with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki. That meeting was around ten o'clock. By the way, I should tell you, the Drive-Bys are really worried about this one. I saw a tweet from F. Chuck Todd of NBC News. They are really, really worried and F. Chuck's tweet, I don't have it right in front of me, but his tweet is written as though he is a member of the administration. This could really be bad for us. Because F. Chuck notes that local media is also on to this and on to it big time.

This is not like Benghazi, which is faked and contrived by the Republicans. This is not like the IRS scandal which is again something the Republicans have got nothing else to talk about so they're trying to contrive and make the IRS thing to be much worse than it really is. This is nothing like Fast and Furious. No, no, no, the gunrunning operation that Eric Holder and Obama did that ended up with really powerful weapons in the hands of Mexican drug cartels, done on purpose.

Fast and Furious, of course, was designed to, in a surreptitious way, attack the Second Amendment by causing public outrage in this country over how easy it is for these guns to end up in the hands of drug lords. Well, it is easy if you're gonna make sure it happens. But that scandal, according to F. Chuck and the rest of the Drive-Bys, no big deal. That's just the Republicans once again yammering, trying to make something out of nothing. And Obamacare, there's no real scandal there. That's just the president trying to insure the uninsured, really trying to improve health care for everybody. Really, really, really trying to make health care affordable for all Americans.

But this VA thing, they're worried. The Drive-Bys are worried. They don't think they're gonna be able to manage this one. And the VA scandal is not so much about lack of treatment. It's about lack of getting treatment. Let me put it this way, the scandal is not that the treatment is poor, the medical care is poor; it's that nobody can get it. The lines are so long, the system is so inefficient, that people can't get in. Vets can't get in to VA centers for treatment, and they come up with these fake lists that are waiting lists that are designed to create the illusion they're speeding people through when they're not. I don't think there are a whole lot of serious complaints about the level of actual health care that's at these centers; it's that nobody can get in, because it's such a mismanaged bureaucracy.

So, anyway, the Drive-Bys are worried. To illustrate their worry, the president's meeting with Shinseki was at around ten o'clock, and no matter what news network you tuned to, the Drive-Bys and the White House correspondents were lined up in the White House pressroom for the entire time doing stand-up news reports about the coming press conference, the coming statement by President Obama after his meeting with Shinseki at 10:45. And for the most part, the president was on time -- and, boy was he mad!

OBAMA: When I hear allegations of misconduct, any misconduct -- whether it's allegations of VA staff covering up long wait times or cooking the books -- I will not stand for it, not as commander-in-chief but also not as an American. None of us should. So, if these allegations prove to be true, it's dishonorable, it is disgraceful, and I will not tolerate it. Period.

RUSH: See? He just found out! This is the Limbaugh Theorem on display once again. He's as mad as he can be. He just found out about this. Shinseki just today told him how bad it is -- and even at that, they don't really know. They've gotta do an investigation first. And if the investigation confirms what Obama was told, he's really gonna be mad. But he didn't know anything about it.

It's like he just became president yesterday, and yesterday they tell him all of this stuff that's been going on to try to get him up to speed. Then, as is his usual reaction, he said that the previous administrations all have played a role in this and that he has ordered the VA to "up its game." When he found out what was going on, he told the VA they better get shipshape now!

OBAMA: When I came into office, I said we would systematically work to fix these problems, and we have been working really hard to address them. I want specific recommendations on how VA can up their game. Some of the problems with respect to how veterans are able to access the benefits that they've earned? That's not a new issue! That's an issue that I was working on when I was running for the United States Senate. We are gonna fix whatever is wrong. And so long as I have the privilege of serving as commander-in-chief, I'm gonna keep on fighting to deliver the care and the benefits and the opportunities that your families deserve.

RUSH: See? What has happened from 2008 forward doesn't matter. It's only from today forward that matters. Now that Obama's on the case, now that he knows about it, he's not gonna put up with it! He is not gonna tolerate this. When he hears about these allegations of misconduct -- covering up long wait times, cooking the books -- he's not gonna put up with it. He's had it, he's not gonna put up with it. When he came into office he said they were gonna work to fix these problems, and they have been.

But somehow they didn't get fixed, and now he's really mad. So it's classic Limbaugh Theorem. He didn't know about it. He's just as mad as you. Now that he's found out about it, he's gonna fight these horrible, terrible forces that are undermining the VA. He's gonna get 'em and he's gonna find out who they are! He's gonna identify 'em and he's gonna send 'em packing, he's working for you. He's doing everything he can. He's just as mad as you are. He had no idea things were this bad.

This is how he does it.

This is how he convinces the low-information crowd. Nobody's supposed to ask, "Well, this has been going on the whole time he's been president. Why didn't you know about it?" You're not supposed to ask that. What you are supposed to conclude is he cares. "Oh, does he care -- and is he mad! Oh, oh! He is so mad."

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here's the tweet that Chuck Todd sent out that I mentioned to you earlier: "Have noticed a lot of local media doing 'check out the VA problems here' stories... As we said last week, THIS is a MAJOR [WHITE HOUSE] problem." They're really, really worry about this. Now, when Obama was a senator... He just talked about how he's been working on VA issues since he was a senator, and he's so mad about this. Well, he sponsored -- are you ready? -- a whopping two bills about veterans. Both bills died in committee.

He didn't do anything, but he pretends he did so much and cares so much, and that's the trick, folks. That's the magic with this Regime. But the fact of the matter is, this is worse than ever. It's worse under Obama. This kind of thing did not happen under George W. Bush. I don't care what Obama says. I don't care what his supporting media says. There were no hidden waiting lists. There were no secret waiting lists that people moved in and out of.

There were no attempts to cover up the number of people being treated by the VA under George W. Bush. These hidden waiting lists are due to Obama's window dressing of a two-week waiting list mandate. That's all that's happening here, but it didn't happen under Bush.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: New York Times headline: "VA Accusations Aggravate the Woes of the White House." No panic there yet. But this scandal is substantive, they think, at the New York Times, unlike Benghazi, IRS, Fast and Furious, Obamacare, and all that. This for some reason has the White House, the Regime, and the media is really, really, really worried.